Seasons

It’s August, the 8th month of the year and the height of the summer. I read a quote somewhere this week that described it as ‘the evening of summer’ and this means Autumn(or fall in North America) is almost upon us.

Somewhere else I read someone talking about how it is almost Christmas. Well I started rolling my eyes at that, because one of my pet peeves is people & businesses(especially) talking about Christmas before the end of November. I am that annoying person (yup grinch here)who is always moaning about how Christmas has been commercialised and I think I am getting worse year on year. I roll my eyes,groan,block my eyes and just generally can’t stand the whole Christmas charade in the shops. Last year I intentionally avoided going to retail spaces (unless I absolutely needed to) from around September. This girl is extra you might think. I think I am!

Ok I digress a bit but I just couldn’t help it. This got me thinking about myself and predispositions generally about the concept of time and seasons. And I realised that as much as I moan about early Christmases or wonder why people are thinking about Autumn in Summer, I am equally as or even more guilty.

Guilty of what you may ask? Guilty of trying to fast forward the time and not enjoying the current season I am in .

A lot of times I console myself by calling it ‘forward planning’ or being very ‘organised’. I start thinking about my Saturday routines on Monday and my Monday routines on Saturday. I know and plan what we will eat and wear the week ahead.The children are still on holiday and I have already started thinking about how things will work in September when they are back in school. Planning is a very big part of my day job and one of the reasons I think I am good at it is because I am very predisposed to thinking ahead. I am a very habitual creature and routines are my safe space.

Everything I do to plan is to make my life easier when I do to get to the season I am planning for. This is especially as I have no domestic help and have to plan around managing my time and resources at my disposal. I even plan me and my husbands annual leave at the beginning of the year to plan for the school holidays.

Thinking about this made realise;what right do I really have to moan about businesses thinking ahead to one of their most important trading seasons? If I can plan October half term in January why can’t businesses plan/market Christmas in September?

Planning and time management is a really really good thing.It makes my life easier in a lot of ways.But I am sure we have all heard the phrase ‘too much of a good thing’.

At what point does ‘planning’ ‘ forward thinking’ begin to rob you enjoying the now . I would spend the whole of Saturday cooking so that we could have food during the week(planning ahead). I would finish around say 6.00pm and realise that I had not spent any time talking or even enjoying the company of my family cos I was so tired. So yes we have food in the fridge for the week (really good) but did I really enjoy my Saturday?

Now I am not saying we should not plan ahead. I don’t think I can ever stop planning ahead as that is how I am wired. What I am saying is that we need to find a balance that allows us to plan ahead but also allows us to enjoy the now. I now cook less( we didn’t need that much food anyway ) ,get the kids into the kitchen and then we do something else like go for a walk and do other activities on Saturdays as well. I don’t want my memories of Saturdays being purely kitchen based!

There are loads of areas that I think I need to work on but i am taking it one day at a time . So my charge for us this week is let’s plan for the future but also look for ways to enjoy the now.

While looking forward to summer,enjoy what you can in the winter & spring.There are different seasons for a reason .They all have their own great and not so great parts .We are only really ever guaranteed the one we are in right now as no one but only God can totally predict what the future holds.

As always thank you so much for reading. I really love the engagement and I am so grateful for the encouragement as well.

Please do comment and share with others. Have a lovely week ahead.

Much love,

Oyindamola

Picture credits – Pinterest & The Bible App